First Thoughts

Well this is now my second full day at my new home in Niagara Falls. First off I’d like to say, DAMN WHY IS IT SO HOT?!!?!?! I came from Charlottetown that day from rainy, crappy 18C or 19C to a hazy, sunny 33C with a humidex of 43C. So to say the least, it was blisttering. And even now, it’s still balzing warm outside. It hasn’t let off one bit. If anything, it’s probably gotten hotter. I thought I enjoyed the heat, but this kind of it is making think twice before I say something like that again.

I actually just went out for a walk around the neighborhood. I wanted to see where I’m living and the surrounding area. It was the first time (I’m kind of shamed to say) that I’ve been outside here for more than 10 minutes in one go. I think I almost passed out. I think I could feel my flesh actually cooking. I must have got an instasunburn or something. Anyways, I discovered there’s a school inthe very near vicinity as well as two parks. Our subdivision is even called ‘[insert random pretentious name here] Estates’. Makes it sound all high class or something.

I also (obviously) got a good look around the new house and it is pretty nice. I like my little area of the house because I get two bedrooms (one is a study with a bed really) and the little balcony thingy. There’s an interconnecting bathroom between the two bedrooms which has become mine since the parents have their own bathroom. There’s even a Jacuzzi in their bathroom which I will definitely have to test out sometime. All that’s missing here now is a pool in the backyard. There’s no grass yet since it’s too hot/dry to put the sodding down. There’s also no driveway since there’s some bylaw here that you can’t put down a driveway in the first year. Apparantly the ground requires time to settle or something like that. They don’t want people repaving their driveway after a year. Bad for the environment and all you know?

The house still isn’t completely finished yet. There’s some quirks to be ironed out around the house and there’s a crapload of boxes in the basement. I have yet to find some things I’ve been looking for. I’m sure they’ll pop up soon enough and I’m being pretty lazy so it’ll most likely be later rather than sooner that I actually stumble upon them. There’s no rush really. I don’t really have anything to do and I can’t really go walk about too much either. I don’t know the area and I don’t feel like getting lost just yet. I’ll have to go visit the falls soon. It just seems like the stereotypical thing to do around here. To be honest though, I haven’t done many of the things to actually get a good view of the Falls like going on that boat and walking in the caves behind the Falls. It will definitely be something I’ll have to do. I’ve got plenty of time I guess.

There was an intense thinderstorm last night, way worse than anything I’ve ever seen on the Island. It was super bright and as I was there sleeping, it was like my room’s lights were on and brighter. The noise was deafening. And unlike the lightning you usually see on the Island, the type where you don’t see individual bolts only the sky light up, I could actually see lightning bolts reach for the ground. Scary at points. I finally got a firsthand experience of real ‘instantenous lightning-thunder combo’. Must’ve been very close by at some points!

So far, things definitely looking pretty up. The air conditioning is a godsend. I couldn’t imagine living here without it. Even upstairs (since heat rises) is pretty wam still with the AC on. It’s not bad though; I can live with it.

Now, unfortunately, it would seem like my computer stuff isn’t going to well. One of the power connectors on my video card broke. That’s right. It broke clean off. Well I can see why. The box I put it in was kind of too small for it and I had burnt a nearby pin previously as well. All in the name of computer enthusiasts I guess. In any case, it was partly my stupidity (small box) and partly the fact that you shouldn’t ship fragile stuff like that without special shipping methods. Ah well. Can’t do anything about that now. So I pull the crappy old video card out of the Dell box that’s sitting unused in the basement and I plugged that in. Fortunately for me, that doesn’t work either. Everytime anything graphical opens up (such as Windows) the card takes a fit and the computer screen signal dies. How lucky huh? *sigh* So it looks like I’ll need to pick up a new video card. This time, it’s good that I’m living very close to Toronto where there is a large number of oomputer stores. I’ve got one picked out and it’ll just be a matter of going there and picking it up.

So here I am sitting in the living room area watching Galidator, typing on my laptop. What a life eh? I should be interesting as I didn’t bother applying for any jobs this summer. I figure I’ll be working enough with the next 5 years completely filled by my co-op without summers. I think it’s only fair I get this one off to be lazy.

I miss the Island and the people already. It shall be difficult being here knowing no one really. Excuse the typing errors; Gladiator is siphoning most of my attention and I’m no good at multitasking.

Related

COMMENTS

One Reply to “First Thoughts”

Hey Charlie, glad to hear that things are going pretty well…we’ll gladly take some of the heat from you, we could use it here on the island. Enjoy the rest of your summer and not working! Don’t forget to keep in touch